Buying a Home, the Basics

How many times have you asked this; "If there was only some visual representation of what I need to do as someone who wishes to buy a new home?"

Well, that's what Kiss Mortgages is here for, to Keep It Simple Simple. Feast your peepers on this.  

While it's meant for your basic mortgage broker 101 course, I believe it helps to take away the mystery of what a mortgage broker does and why. After all, we may understand why we need a T1 General (Canada represent) or two years NOAs but do you? Do you even know what that means? Let me be your tour guide. Follow me down the rabbit hole...

1) Initiate Client Contact - Whatever the marketing pros want to call it - 'touches' 'collisions' 'interactions' all it is really is someone saying 'I might need help one day and I will remember you first.'

Ten Costs to Consider When buying a House.

There's a lot of things to consider when you are looking at 'moving on up' in the world, or even just 'moving across the street'. Here are 10 things. You may overlooked one or two.

Balloons help in every situation. 

You will Discover This Free New Post is Guaranteed to Make You think 'Mortgage Broker'

There's a lot of things to consider if you are thinking of jumping careers into a completely new field in a futile bid to ward off the specter of our imminent demise which will (unless 'science' gets in the way) claim us all in the next 100 years.

Because apparently, NASA becomes sponsored by the wine industry

I decided to juggle the mind field of mortgage brokering after some recommendations from family. This is on top of my job as a care aide, father, husband, volunteer firefighter and part-time writer for a popular webzine (if you live in the United Kingdom and still have an opinion of Christopher Nolan's Batman). I sometimes get them confused as on top of all these responsibilities, I also need to sleep.

The other day, slightly distracted by thoughts on my various career paths, I came across a minor accident; a few vehicles were pulled over to the side of the road and a few people were attending a middle-aged man with no visible signs of injury. He wore motorbike leathers and seeing as how there was no motorbike visible, only a slight skid mark that went over the side of the road into the bushes, it was pretty self-explanatory.

As all first responders, professional or volunteer should do, I identified myself to offer my trained assistance;
"Hi, I'm a mortgage broker, do you need any help?"

It took me a brief moment for my ears to catch up to my words as the 1/2 dozen assorted strangers looked at me. Too late, I corrected myself;
"I mean, I'm with the fire hall."

But by then it was too late, I lost their business.

"Are you looking for a variable or fixed rate?"

Debt Ratio, Loan to Value and say what what?

Memories before Responsibilities

or 

How I finally Learned What Debt Ratio Meant. 

I remember when I was a young boy, lying outside on the back lawn, looking up at the stars and thinking how cool it would be to have a tent.
Then I was a young man, lying in the back of my car, looking up at at the stars through the sunroof and thinking how cool it would be living in a house.
Then, when I was a slightly older man, lying in my bed in a house with 4 other roommates and thinking how cool it would be to have my own house, one without roommates.

His Retro Winnipeg Jets shirt only got him so far...

But I had no idea how to start. I saw a 'For Sale' sign on a nice house, called the realtor and quickly hung up after she told me how much it was. I found out that the first thing I needed to do was find out how much of a house I could actually afford. I realized that I should be looking at something a bit smaller, like a stand-alone carport or maybe fulfill that childhood dream of getting a tent.

Discouraged, I began to learn the backside of home purchase; what a mortgage was, why that interest rate thing I continually heard about on the news was so important. How could someone on my relatively low income ever afford to live without roommates? So I made an appointment with my bank's financial consultant.

"You Want to Buy a House? hahahaha" - my dad

Now is the time to buy a house (or condo, apartment, cottage). Everyone involved in buying houses says so. Heck, I'm saying it because financial institutions want to pay me money to get people to come borrow hundreds of thousands of dollars off of them, securing their financial security for decades to come (the institutions, not you).

Statistics that I am pretty certain exist somewhere show that most people prefer to live in some type of domicile that can hold not only all their stuff, but perhaps even have sanitary facilities, a lockable door, electricity and windows without bars.

Expectation

So why should you wait? If you are like most people you probably are waiting because you saw those for sale signs on people's lawns, checked out the price on the internet then sadly looked at your bank account or paycheck and thought WTF?

Reality

The concept of purchasing a residence of your very own slides quickly away as you wonder how the heck anyone not born in the sixties or seventies who is not on television or in banking can afford to buy such a luxury when you are still budgeting to pay off your student loan, your credit card and/or returning bottles for bus fare to get to work and back.

A nice compromise but for the travel. 

There is a sense of security that comes with having your very own place, but also a sense of ... 'Uh oh'... if you decide to buy a house that you can live in but not do much else. It's often called 'house poor'. All your disposable income you thought you had at your fingertips is destined for 'house-related' things. Perhaps you need a new fridge or have neglected to factor in property taxes. You have crap windows so your heating bill triples during winter. The roof has started to leak or you have a severe bug infestation which would make Mike Holmes shake his head in disgust at how a house like yours could possibly even be in existence.

We will have to tear out the kitchen and
may as well finish your basement while we are at it.

If you already are a home owner, you know what I am talking about. You need to pay for all of these unexpected expenses somehow. If you don't have kids maybe you can bring in a couple of roommates, forget the concept of privacy for a couple of years (and maybe your television when they move out in the middle of the night). But I'm getting ahead of myself.